Category Archives: Weightlifting

Two Olympic Spots to be Decided at USA Weightlifting National Championships

The USA Weightlifting National Championships are this weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah and two Olympic spots will be up for grabs on the women’s side. On the men’s side they will be vying for spots at the Pan American Championships where Olympic qualifying can be achieved.

The US women successfully qualified three spots for the Olympics by placing 14th in a combination of scores from the last two world championships. One of those spots has been awarded to Jenny Arthur based on her finishes in the last two world championships (14th in 2014 and eighth in 2015). The other two spots will be determined this weekend based on a fairly simple formula.

The formula is to compare the top lift of their potential athletes to the average third place score in that weight category at the world championships and Olympics over the last four years. The top two ratios (Competitors lift/average third place lift) will decide the Olympic qualifiers. The results from the 2015 World Championships, 2015 America Open Championships, and the 2016 National Junior Championships count in this format so unless they are topped this weekend they will decide the qualifiers. Currently the top two from the US are Sarah Robles, with a 96.207% ratio from the world championships, and Mattie Rogers with a 92.824% ratio from the national junior championships. Robles competed for the US in the 2012 Olympics and finished seventh.

On the men’s side the formula to determine team spots is slightly different. The score being compared to is the average for each of the top 25 places over the last couple years. Athletes are ranked based on how high they would have theoretically finished with the tiebreaker being whoever was closest to moving up a spot. 2012 Olympian Kendrick Farris is one of the top two for the US in this ranking currently and is expected to compete for an Olympic spot at the Pan American Championships.

The competitors for the Olympic/Pan American spots will not go until Sunday afternoon. Until then competition begins on Friday and runs through Sunday with each weight class competing separately. Most of these classes will see their national champion awarded to someone competing in the Sunday afternoon competition but in some cases there is no one competing on Sunday in that weight class. Friday kicks off with the men’s 56kg, 62kg, and 69kg divisions, along with the women’s 48kg, 53kg, and 58kg divisions. The men’s 56kg and 62kg do not have anyone competing on Sunday so the national champions will be decided Friday.

Olympic Review – August 5th

Athletics

In the women’s marathon this morning the US saw Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher hang with the leaders for most of the race. As the marathon came down to it’s final miles though the leaders pulled away and left Flanagan and Goucher to finish 10th and 11th. American Desiree Davila really wanted to start and did, but she pulled out quickly after that with the injuries she’s been dealing with lately.

In the women’s 400m hurdles in the afternoon the US got all three of their athletes, T’Erea Brown, Lashinda Demus, and Georganne Moline into the semifinals scheduled for Monday.

All three Americans qualified for Tuesday’s men’s high jump final on Sunday. Erik Kynard and Jesse Williams jumped the highest height reached, 2.29m, while Jamie Nieto jumped 2.26m without missing to reach the final in a tiebreaker with the others that didn’t clear 2.29m.

Then in the men’s 1500m Andrew Wheating and Leonel Manzano were in the first heat and we saw Leonel Manzano come on late to finish 4th and qualify for the final. Andrew Wheating finished 9th and was eliminated. In the second heat Matthew Centrowitz pulled into position late and finished 5th to qualify for the final. Manzano and Centrowitz will be in the final on Tuesday.

In the men’s hammer throw final Kibwe Johnson’s best throw of 74.95m in the first three was just shy of the 8th place distance, 75.84, and saw him eliminated in 9th place.

The Americans only had two competitors in the men’s 400m semifinals. The men’s 400m is an event the US has dominated for years.  Today was not their day though… in the 1st round LaShawn Merritt had been injured and unable to complete his race. In the 2nd heat today Tony McQuay couldn’t keep up down the stretch and finished in 4th. Then in the 3rd heat Bryshon Nellum nearly went quick enough. However his 45.02 was .03 slower than necessary to get him into the final and the Americans were shutout. This is remarkable considering in Beijing and Athens the US swept the men’s 400m medals. Excluding the boycotted Moscow games in 1980 the last time the US didn’t have the gold medalist in the event was 1976. The last time the US didn’t have a medalist at all was 1920. And the last time the US didn’t have a finalist… well that had never happened until today.

The US did stack the field in the women’s 400m final with DeeDee Trotter, Sanya Richards-Ross, and Francena McCorory. In the end it was Sanya Richards-Ross that flew down the track the quickest and won the race in 49.55. DeeDee Trotter finished third in 49.72 to give the US two medals in the event.

After that in the 3000m final Evan Jager and Donald Cabral led a lot of the way but late on they faded and finished 6th (Jager) and 8th (Cabral) within 8 seconds of the leader.

The final event of the day was the men’s 100m final. Having qualified Tyson Gay, Justin Gatlin and Ryan Bailey it wasn’t clear who would challenge Usain Bolt, but the Americans had a few that could try. In the end they weren’t able to beat Bolt, but then again no human has ever ran as fast as he did, other than himself. His 9.63 was an Olympic Record and overshadowed great runs of 9.79 by Justin Gatlin (3rd and a personal best), 9.80 by Tyson Gay (4th and a season best), and 9.88 by Ryan Bailey (5th and a personal best).

Basketball

The US women take on China in their final group stage game and after being close early they blew the Chinese out of the gym, winning 114-66 to lock up 1st place in their group. They will face Canada in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Beach Volleyball

The beach volleyball competitions had the quarterfinals today and it was a great day for the Americans. First Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh Jennings solidly beat Greta Cicolari/Marta Menegatti of Italy 21-13, 21-13 to move into Tuesday’s semifinals. Their opponent on Tuesday will be Chen Xue/Xi Zhang of China. Later April Ross/Jennifer Kessy beat Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic 25-23, 21-18 in a really close match to move into the semifinals on Tuesday. At least one of these two will medal at this point.

Boxing

The US saw their first female boxer get underway on Sunday and saw her tournament come to an end as Queen Underwood was defeated 21-13 by Natasha Jonas of Great Britain in the lightweight round of 16.

Cycling

In men’s cycling Bobby Lea wrapped up the omnium by finishing 11th in the 4km individual pursuit, 7th in the 15km scratch race, and 13th in the 1km time trial. This left him in 12th at the end of the omnium with 61 points.

In the men’s sprint Jimmy Watkins lost twice to Shane Perkins of Australia in the quarterfinals, ending his chance at a medal. Instead he was in the 5th-8th place race and finished to end the individual sprint competition in 6th place.

Diving

There were high hopes today that Christina Loukas or Cassidy Krug could add another medal to the US’s already successful diving haul in London, both those hopes were dashed as both women has some disappointing dives and ended up finishing 7th (Krug) and 8th (Loukas).

Equestrian

In the equestrian competition the 2nd day of jumping took place. McLain Ward on Antares and Beezie Madden on Via Volo both finished with 4 penalties. Ward now has 4 overall and is 17th in the individual competition while Madden was eliminated from the individual competition on Saturday in the first round. Reed Kessler on Cylana had a few problems and finished with 9 penalties, placing her in 47th and eliminating her from the individual competition. That meant Rich Fellers on Flexible needed a great ride to keep the US in the team competition by placing them in the top eight. He had a perfect ride and it was just enough as the US ended up in 8th, 2 points clear of 9th place Mexico. All four riders will ride tomorrow in the team jumping final while Fellers and Ward will hope their scores keep them in the top 35 in the individual competition to make the individual 4th round.

Fencing

In men’s team foil the US started off slow against France falling behind 20-13 after four matches. They steadily came back and were down 30-24 when Gerek Meinhardt turned things around with an 11-1 bout win to give the US a 35-31 which they never relinquished en route to a 45-39 victory in the quarterfinals. Things didn’t go as well after that as the US lost 45-24 to Italy in the semifinals and 45-27 to Germany in the bronze medal match and finished 4th overall.

Gymnastics

Two Americans were involved in individual apparatus competitions on Sunday. Jacob Dalton finished 5th overall in the men’s floor final with a score of 15.333 while McKayla Maroney finished 2nd in the women’s vault final with a score of 15.083 after she fell on her 2nd vault attempt’s landing. It was a disappointing finish for Maroney who was a heavy favorite in the event.

Sailing

In the women’s RS-X competition Farrah Hall finished her event by finishing in 16th in both the 9th and 10th races. She ended up with 173 points and finished in 20th place.

Her counterpart, Robert Willis, finished in 11th and 30th in the 9th and 10th races and finished in 22nd overall with 179 points.

In 49er racing Erik Storck/Trevor Moore were 10th entering Sunday’s race but placed 20th and 17th in the 12th and 13th races to really hurt their chances of making the medal race. They are in 15th with 132 points and would need to climb to 10th (117 points) during the final two races on Monday.

In the women’s 470 Amanda Clark/Sarah Lihan were in 4th heading into Sunday’s races but finished 19th and 20th (out of 20) to fall to 8th place with a total of 41 points. Races 7 and 8 will be on Tuesday.

Mark Mendelblatt/Brian Fatih took part in the star’s medal race. They finished in 6th place and ended the competition in 7th overall.

Shooting

In the men’s 50m pistol qualifying round Sunday morning Nickolaus Mowrer finished 15th with 558 points and Daryl Szarenski finished 28th with 550 points. Mowrer had a great final round to end up within one point of being involved in the tiebreaker for the final spot in the final.

Tennis

The US went for three medals at Wimbledon on Sunday. First Serena Williams/Venus Williams took on Andrea Hlavackova/Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic for the women’s doubles gold. The sister had a bit more trouble than Serena did in her single’s final, but still won the match 6-4, 6-4 to take home their 3rd doubles gold medal.

Liezel Huber/Lisa Raymond faced Maria Kirilenko/Nadia Petrova of Russia for the women’s doubles bronze. After winning the first set 6-4 they lose the 2nd set 6-4 and lost the 3rd set 6-1 to miss out on medaling in London.

Finally the mixed doubles bronze medal final between Lisa Raymond/Mike Bryan and Sabine Lisicki/Christopher Kas of Germany took place and Lisa Raymond ended up with a medal after all as they beat the Germans 6-3, 4-6, [10]-[4].

Volleyball

The US women had already locked up the top spot in their group but they finished it in style beating Turkey in straight sets (27-25, 25-16, 25-19). The US will now face the Dominican Republic in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

Water Polo

The US women won their quarterfinal matchup fairly easily against Italy, 9-6 and now they will face Australia in the semifinals on Tuesday.  Australia finished 3-0 atop their group but struggled to beat 0-3 China today in the quarterfinals.

Weightlifting

There were two women competing for the US in +75kg weightlifting today. Holley Mangold lifted 105kg in the snatch and 135kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 140kg, placing her 10th. Sarah Robles lifted 120 kg in the snatch and 145kg in the clean and jerk, placing her 7th overall with 265kg.

Weightlifting

In men’s 55kg greco-roman wrestling Spenser Thomas Mango advanced from the qualification round by beating Abouhalima Abouhalima of Egypt 3PP-1.  Then in the round of 16 he lost to Rovshan Bayramov of Azerbaijan 3PO-0.  Because Bayramov made the gold medal final Spenser Thomas Mango got into the repechage bracket and faced Mingiyan Semenov of Russia but lost 3PO-0.

In the men’s 74kg greco-roman wrestling Benjamin Provisor beat Cuba’s Bel Alexei 3PP-1 in the qualification round. He was then eliminated by Zurabi Datunashvili 3PO-0 in the round of 16.

Olympic Preview – August 5th

The day will get started at 4 AM when the men’s 50m pistol qualification beings. It ends at 4:50 PM with the men’s 100m final.

As always follow me on twitter for the most current information and coverage.  If you have any questions feel free to shoot them my way and I will attempt to help you!

It appears almost everything is available online at nbcolympics.com with the exception of the qualifying rounds for shooting.

All times mentioned from now on are ET.

Athletics

There’s only one session of athletics today at the Olympics, that coming in the afternoon. In the morning the women’s marathon will be held on the streets of London.

Starting off the afternoon is the 1st round of women’s 400m hurdles, American T’Erea Brown (2 PM), Lashinda Demus (2:16 PM) and Georganne Moline (2:24 PM) will run in different heats and a top 3 finishes in their heat moves them on to the semifinals on Monday.

At 2:05 PM the qualification period will begin for the men’s high jump. Erik Kynard, Jamie Nieto, and Jesse Williams are the competitors for the US with Williams holding the highest jump this season amongst the three at 2.36m.  A top 12 finish or hitting the automatic qualifying score will qualify an athlete for the final. Each athlete gets three tries at a height to clear it.

Next on the track is the men’s 100m semifinals. Justin Gatlin (2:45 PM), Ryan Bailey (2:53 PM), and Tyson Gay (3:01 PM) will be in separate heats and need top 2 finishes to reach the final. The next two fastest times will also qualify.

Then in the men’s 1500m Andrew Wheating and Leonel Manzano will run first at 3:15 PM followed by Matthew Centrowitz at 3:25 PM. If they finish top four in their heat they’ll be in the final. I believe after that it’ll be the next four fastest overall.

At 3:20 PM the men’s hammer throw final will being with Kibwe Johnson hoping to move up from his 5th place mark in qualification to grab a medal. Each athlete will get three throws to start and then the top eight will get three more. The longest throw in the entire six-throw final is the winner.

The next track event is the men’s 400m semifinals. Tony McQuay (3:48 PM) and Bryshon Nellum (3:56 PM) will race with a top two finish in their heat or next two fastest overall giving them a spot in Monday’s final.

After that the women’s 400m final will take place at 4:10 PM with DeeDee Trotter, Sanya Richards-Ross, and Francena McCorory all in the final for the US.

Next is the men’s 3000m steeplechase final at 4:25 PM with Evan Jager and Donald Cabral in the final for the US.

The final event of the day is the spectacular men’s 100m final. If Justin Gatlin, Ryan Bailey, and Tyson Gay can qualify for the final they will be racing at 4:50 PM.

6 AM – Women’s Athletics – Marathon
2 PM – Women’s Athletics – 400m Hurdles – T’Erea Brown – Round 1 – Heat 1
2:05 PM – Men’s Athletics – High Jump – Qualification
2:16 PM – Women’s Athletics – 400m Hurdles – Lashinda Demus – Round 1 – Heat 3
2:24 PM – Women’s Athletics – 400m Hurdles – Georganne Moline – Round 1 – Heat 4
2:45 PM – Men’s Athletics – 100m – Justin Gatlin – Semifinals – Heat 1
2:53 PM – Men’s Athletics – 100m – Ryan Bailey – Semifinals – Heat 2
3:01 PM – Men’s Athletics – 100m – Tyson Gay – Semifinals – Heat 3
3:15 PM – Men’s Athletics – 1500m – Andrew Wheating and Loeonel Manzano – Semifinals – Heat 1
3:20 PM – Men’s Athletics – Hammer Throw – Final
3:25 PM – Men’s Athletics – 1500m – Matthew Centrowitz – Semifinals – Heat 2
3:48 PM – Men’s Athletics – 400m – Tony McQuay – Semifinals – Heat 2
3:56 PM – Men’s Athletics – 400m – Bryshon Nellum – Semifinals – Heat 3
4:10 PM – Women’s Athletics – 400m – Final
4:25 PM – Men’s Athletics – 3000m Steeplechase – Final
4:50 PM – Men’s Athletics – 100m – Final

Basketball

The US women take on China in their final group stage game at 11:45 AM. It would seem the US can be expected to cruise once again, but let’s play the what if game.  IF the US loses to China they would finish level with the Chinese on points with 9 (2 per win, 1 per loss). If Turkey wins their game over Croatia they would also have 9 points. If all three tie then the US would win on point differential as long as something crazy doesn’t happen, like losing by 20. If Turkey lost the US would lose the tiebreaker on head-to-head result with China and finish 2nd. Either way the US will advance to the quarterfinals.

11:45 AM – Women’s Basketball – China – Group Stage

Beach Volleyball

The beach volleyball competitions are down to the quarterfinals, and all the women will play on the same day from here on out. In the quarterfinals on Sunday Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh Jennings will take on Greta Cicolari/Marta Menegatti of Italy at 2 PM. Right after that, at 3 PM, April Ross/Jennifer Kessy face Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic. If the women win they will move on to the semifinals on Tuesday.

2 PM – Women’s Beach Volleyball – Misty May-Treanor/Kerri Walsh Jennings vs. Greta Cicolari/Marta Menegatti – Quarterfinals
3 PM – Women’s Beach Volleyball – April Ross/Jennifer Kessy vs. Kristyna Kolocova/Marketa Slukova – Quarterfinals

Boxing

The US finally sees their women’s boxing athletes get underway as Queen Underwood takes on Great Britain’s Natasha Jones in the lightweight round of 16 at 9:30 AM.

9:30 AM – Women’s Boxing – Lightweight – Queen Underwood vs. Natasha Jones – Round of 16

Cycling

The US is competing in two events on Sunday. Bobby Lea continues the men’s omnium with the final three events. He enters the day in 11th position. In the first event, the individual pursuit at 5 AM, the competitors will race 4km as quick as possible. The competitors will be ranked by their time for the standings. After that there will be a 15km scratch race at 12:01 PM, essentially just a race with the first competitors to cross the finish line being the winner. It ends with the 1km time trial at 1:16 PM, the competitors ranked by time. In each event the winner gets 1 point, 2nd 2 points, and so on. The winner of the omnium is the person with the least total points at the end.

In the other event for the US on Sunday, the men’s sprint, there are two riders who race three laps. The first rider to cross the finish line wins. Jimmy Watkins is the US competitor and faces Shane Perkins of Australia in the quarterfinals at 11:34 AM. If he wins he’ll move into the semifinals tomorrow, if he loses he’ll be in the 5-8 final this afternoon at 1:47 PM.

5 AM – Men’s Cycling – Track – Omnium – Individual Pursuit
11:34 AM – Men’s Cycling – Track – Sprint – Quarterfinals
12:01 PM – Men’s Cycling – Track – Omnium – 15km Scratch Race
1:16 PM – Men’s Cycling – Track – Omnium – 1km Time Trial
1:47 PM – Men’s Cycling – Track – Sprint – Final 5-8

Diving

Christina Loukas (7th in the preliminary round, 6th in semifinal) and Cassidy Krug (11th in preliminary round, 5th in semifinal) will try to medal this afternoon in the women’s 3m springboard final at 2 PM. Both girls will dive five times as one of the 12 finalists, and the highest total score is the winner.

2 PM – Women’s Diving – 3m Springboard – Final

Equestrian

In the equestrian competition we have come to the 2nd day of jumping. This is the 2nd round for individuals and the 1st round for teams. Being one of the top eight teams, the US will have all their riders go in the 2nd half of the competition. The four US riders are Mclain Ward on Antares, Beezie Madden on Via Volo, Reed Kessler on Cylana, and Rich Fellers on Flexible.  As long as the US finishes in the top eight as a team they will advance to the 3rd round. In the individual portion Mclain Ward and Rich Fellers are in 1st with 0 penalties, (32 riders did that on day 1) and Reed Kessler is tied for 33rd with 1 penalty. Beezie Madden was eliminated after having 2 refusals but will be taking part in the team portion still.

6 AM – Equestrian – Jumping – 2nd Qualifier

Fencing

In men’s team foil the US has their final chance to add to their medal count in London. They take on France to start at 5:30 AM. Other rounds would start as shown below.

Fencing team matches are very interesting. Let’s say the US has fencers A, B, and C. France has D, E, and F. In a series of three minute matches we would have the following matchups in some order: AD, BE, CF, AE, BF, CD, AF, BD, CE. The 1st match goes until one team has 5 points or the three minutes are up. The 2nd match goes until one team has 10 points or the three minutes are up, and so on. If either team reaches 45 they are the winner. Otherwise, whoever has the most points after the 9 matches is the winner.

5:30 AM – Men’s Fencing – Team Foil – France – Quarterfinals
7 AM – Men’s Fencing – Team Foil – Classification 5-8
8:30 AM – Men’s Fencing – Team Foil – Semifinals
10 AM – Men’s Fencing – Team Foil – Placement 5-6/7-8
1 PM – Men’s Fencing – Team Foil – Bronze Medal Match
2:15 PM – Men’s Fencing – Team Foil – Gold Medal Match

Gymnastics

There are two individual apparatus events the US will be taking part it on Sunday. First at 9 AM is the men’s floor final where Jacob Dalton will be competing for the US. Dalton was 4th in the qualification round on the floor. Next at 9:50 AM, McKayla Maroney will be in the women’s vault final. She dominated the field in the qualification round and is expected to win gold easily in the vault final.

9 AM – Men’s Gymnastics – Floor Final
9:50 AM – Women’s Gymnastics – Vault Final

Sailing

Farrah Hall enters Sunday’s final two Women’s RS-X races in 22nd and will finish her Olympics with race 9 (7 AM) and race 10 (7:50 AM).

Her counterpart, Robert Willis, is 22nd in Men’s RS-X as well and will finish his Olympics with race 9 (8:30 AM) and race 10 (9:20 AM).

In 49er racing Erik Storck/Trevor Moore are 10th overall entering Sunday’s 12th race (7:30 AM) and 13th race (8:20 AM). If they can hold onto a top ten spot through the 15th race on Monday they will make the medal race.

In the women’s 470 Amanda Clark/Sarah Lihan are in 4th heading into Sunday’s 5th race (8 AM) and 6th race (10:30 AM). They are only 7 points behind 1st, 5 points behind 2nd, and 3 points behind 3rd.

Finally at 8 AM Mark Mendelblatt/Brian Fatih will take part in the star’s medal race. They are currently in 6th place with 3rd place 29 points ahead of them. So a medal is not possible but they could finish as high as 4th still.

7 AM – Women’s Sailing – RS-X – Race 9
7:50 AM – Women’s Sailing – RS-X – Race 10
8 AM – Men’s Sailing – Star – Medal Race
8 AM – Women’s Sailing – 470 – Race 5
8:30 AM – Men’s Sailing – RS-X – Race 9
9:20 AM – Men’s Sailing – RS-X – Race 10
9:30 AM – Men’s Sailing – 49er – Race 12
10:20 AM – Men’s Sailing – 49er – Race 13
10:30 AM – Women’s Sailing – 470 – Race 6

Shooting

The only shooting competition the US will be taking place on Sunday in is the men’s 50m pistol at 4 AM. The US has two competitors, Nickolaus Mowrer and Daryl Szarenski.  The qualification round is 60 shots scored 1-10 by one.  The top eight move on to the final where there are ten more shots scored to 10.9 by .1.

4 AM – Men’s Shooting – 50m Pistol – Qualification
7:30 AM – Men’s Shooting – 50m Pistol – Final

Tennis

The US will be going for three medals at Wimbledon today. First Serena Williams/Venus Williams take on Andrea Hlavackova/Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic at 7 AM for the women’s doubles gold. Then around 9 AM Liezel Huber/Lisa Raymond face Maria Kirilenko/Nadia Petrova of Russia for the women’s doubles bronze. Finally around 11 AM the mixed doubles bronze medal final between Lisa Raymond/Mike Bryan and Sabine Lisicki/Christopher Kas of Germany.

7 AM – Women’s Tennis – Doubles – Serena Williams/Venus Williams vs. Andrea Hlavackova/Lucie Hradecka – Gold Medal Match
APPROX 9 AM – Women’s Tennis – Doubles – Liezel Huber/Lisa Raymond vs. Maria Kirilenko/Nadia Petrova – Bronze Medal Match
APPROX 11 AM – Mixed Tennis – Doubles – Lisa Raymond/Mike Bryan vs. Sabine Lisicki/Christopher Kas – Bronze Medal Match

Volleyball

The USA has already locked up the top spot in their group but they’d like to finish 5-0 and will attempt to do that today when they face Turkey at 3 PM. Turkey is 2-2 so far and battling for a spot in the knockout round with Brazil, so they are highly motivated today.

3 PM – Women’s Volleyball – Turkey – Group Stage

Water Polo

The US finished 2nd in their group and now heads to the quarterfinals where they will face Italy at 2 PM. Italy was 1-2 in their group with the only win a 10-5 victory over Great Britain.

2 PM – Women’s Water Polo – Italy – Quarterfinals

Weightlifting

The only two women weightlifters for the US are both in the +75kg division. Sarah Robles and Holley Mangold will have three tries each at the snatch and the clean and jerk. The top weight lifted in each category is combined and the woman who has lifted the most total is the winner.

10:30 AM – Women’s Weightlifting – +75kg

Weightlifting

Mango Spenser Thomas and Benjamin Provisor have their wrestling competitions today at the Olympics. Mango Spenser Thomas starts at 8 AM in the qualification round, Benjamin Provisor at 8:09 AM in the qualification round too. If they advance the times listed below show when the rounds start. If they lose at some point and the competitor who beats them makes the final they will be in the repechage later in the day for a bronze medal.

8 AM – Men’s Greco-Roman Wrestling – 55kg – Mango Spenser Thomas – Qualification
8:09 AM – Men’s Greco-Roman Wrestling – 74kg – Benjamin Provisor – Qualification
8:18 AM – Men’s Greco-Roman Wrestling – 55kg – Round of 16
8:36 AM – Men’s Greco-Roman Wrestling – 74kg – Round of 16
9:12 AM – Men’s Greco-Roman Wrestling – 55kg – Quarterfinals
9:48 AM – Men’s Greco-Roman Wrestling – 74kg – Quarterfinals
10:24 AM – Men’s Greco-Roman Wrestling – 55kg – Semifinals
10:42 AM – Men’s Greco-Roman Wrestling – 74kg – Semifinals
12:45 PM – Men’s Greco-Roman Wrestling – 55kg – Repechage & Bronze Finals
12:54 PM – Men’s Greco-Roman Wrestling – 74kg – Repechage & Bronze Finals
2:03 PM – Men’s Greco-Roman Wrestling – 55kg – Gold Final
2:48 PM – Men’s Greco-Roman Wrestling – 74kg – Gold Final

Weightlifting Preview

Weightlifting has been a part of the Olympics since 1920, but women’s weightlifting didn’t start until 2000. The weight classes have evolved from five men’s events at the start to eight today along with the seven women’s events.  The US has been one of the stronger countries over time, winning 43 medals (2nd only to the Soviet Union’s 62).  The US has struggled to qualify lifters in the last few years with only three going this year compared to six in Beijing and ten in Atlanta.

The Team:

This year’s team is made up of three athletes. Kendrick Farris will compete in the men’s 85kg division while Holley Mangold and Sarah Robles will compete in the women’s 75kg division.

Links are to twitter accounts for the athletes.

USA Weightlifting
Men:
Kendrick Farris*

Women:
Holley Mangold
Sarah Robles
** – Was on team in 2008

Schedule:

In weightlifting the competitors get three attempts in each of the categories (the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk). Combine the best lifts in each category to get final scores. If there is a tie, the lowest bodyweight of the lifters wins.

All Times ET
Friday August 3rd
5 AM – Men’s 85kg – Group B
7:30 AM – Women’s 75kg – Group B
10:30 AM – Women’s 75kg – Group A
2 PM – Men’s 85kg – Group A

Past Results:

As the only returning competitor from Beijing Kendrick Farris will look to top his 8th place finish. He finished 19th at the latest World Weightlifting Championship. As a team the US has only won two medals since 1984, a bronze and a gold in the inaugural women’s event in Sydney. The US has had three lifters finish 6th in the last two Olympics, but nothing higher than that.

It doesn’t look like the US is a strong competitor in London, but the three athletes will have a chance to put up some good numbers and inspire a stronger team in the future.